What a Loan Officer Should Spend on Marketing in 2026
Ask ten originators what they spend on marketing and you get ten different answers, most of them guesses. Some are dumping money into shared internet leads and calling it a strategy. Others spend almost nothing and wonder why their pipeline dries up the second referrals slow down. Neither group can tell you their cost per funded loan, which is the only number that actually settles the argument. So let’s settle it. What a loan officer should spend on marketing in 2026 is not a fixed dollar figure. It’s a percentage of what you produce, allocated against a target you can defend to yourself at the end of the quarter. This piece gives you the framework, the real costs of the pieces, and a way to judge whether any retainer you’re paying is worth the money. ...